3 Durant followed this book with another best seller, The Mansions of Philosophy(1929). This book sold two million copies in a few years and has sold three million copies to date eighty-five years later, the book is still in print and has been translated into nineteen languages.

Having earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1917 from Columbia University, Durant first won fame and phenomenal success with The Story of Philosophy (1926). Individual volumes have been translated into more than twenty languages. Some even became best sellers, and the tenth volume, Rousseau and Revolution, won a Pulitzer Prize. His volumes, intended for the general reader and each designed to be readable apart from the others, have sold millions of copies. An author of rare literary talents, Durant (1885–1981) won a wide readership through his ability to make history intriguing, lively, and dramatic. Exceptional for its masterful prose as well as its size and scope, the Story is a powerful combination of style and substance.

Reading those volumes-sometimes poring over large portions of them multiple times-would be one of the most enlightening and enjoyable experiences of my life.įirst published between 19, The Story of Civilization is a work of great and enduring value. 1 Although I wanted to learn more about history, I wasn’t sure I wanted to learn that much. Finding the book at the library, I was surprised to see that it was but one volume in a massive series called The Story of Civilization-eleven substantial volumes spanning two feet of shelving. Because my immediate interest was ancient Greece, I decided to try a friend’s recommendation, The Life of Greece by Will Durant. I had taken several history courses but wanted more. Eleven years ago, toward the end of my undergraduate years as a philosophy major at the University of Virginia, I was feeling dissatisfied with my knowledge of history.

The age of faith will durant